IKM-Manning elementary students recently got the opportunity to learn more about growing a seasonal staple, pumpkins. The classes got to explore this incredible fruit inside and out. Melanie Bruck, Program Coordinator with Loess Hills Agriculture in the Classroom, brought in a deconstructed pumpkin as an example that was already carved with the seeds removed and roasted and the slimy insides secured in a plastic bag. This made exploring the pumpkin much neater for those many curious hands. She brought in graphics of the different varieties and sizes of pumpkins and they learned that the stem is hard as a protective measure to keep bugs at bay, the hard rind is designed to protect the soft meat of the interior and the strands inside provide nutrients to the seeds. The students were then taught how the flesh could be cooked, pureed and turned into things like pumpkin pie. Bruck passed out seed packets for the Jack-O-Lantern pumpkin variety and encouraged students to find the number of days it took for that pumpkin to be ready to harvest. “Practically the whole summer,” said one who found it took 110 days. “Iowa’s largest crops are corn and soybeans,” Bruck says,” but because of our rich soil and warm summer growing season, farmers can grow pumpkins and many other crops and sell them from the farm as a form of agrotourism.”
